


Too Early, Too Late

by cremini



Category: Doki Doki Literature Club! (Visual Novel)
Genre: Coffee Shops, F/F, Father-Daughter Relationship, Female Friendship, Friendship, High School, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Mother-Daughter Relationship, Sleepiness, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-05
Updated: 2019-10-14
Packaged: 2020-11-24 05:16:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,092
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20902241
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cremini/pseuds/cremini
Summary: When does it start counting as morning?Yuri wakes up upsettingly early and Natsuki stays up embarrassingly late. Their sleep schedules, both different kinds of unhealthy, overlap a bit and friendship starts to bloom in the early AM.





	1. Night or Morning

4:00 am

Yuri’s alarm clock radio faded in, buzzing and crackling with voices from an out of tune station. The bedroom door was left cracked overnight, and while she was sleeping the cold night air had crept through the dark hallway to fill her room with and blow her blanket halfway off. Or she kicked it off when she was asleep. Regardless, it was freezing. Dark and breezy. A part of her expected when she turned her lights on to see that she had actually been sleeping in some secluded section of a forest where the tall trees blotted out the night sky with their leaves. 

No, that didn’t make sense. She was still half-asleep. The lights stayed off anyway, at least for another minute, and Yuri swaddled herself tightly in a shadowy oversized down comforter. She pushed her knees upward toward her chest, scrunched her toes, and sunk her face halfway into the blanket until she was invisible and swallowed up in the early-morning darkness of her bedroom. She would warm up, but it would take a moment.

Punctuated by static, she could parse the words “zzzzzz - Major Acciden- zzzzzzzzz -rby hospital for - zzzzzzzzz” coming in through her radio’s speakers and quickly clicked it off before yanking her arm back into the warmth of her bed. With no rustling blankets or noisy radio, the room abruptly became silent. _ I suppose she’ll be late again tonight, _ she thought, and sunk her head further into the comforter.

This happened from time to time. Accidents, strokes of bad luck, pretty much anything could come up and keep Yuri’s mother at work even later than usual. Her head emerged long enough to take a breath and sigh, and the room fell silent again, leaving her alone with her thoughts. School didn’t start for another few hours, and she had plenty of time to get ready, so going back to sleep was always an option. _ I could get an early start on homework. _ She chuckled slightly at the word _ early _ and looked back up at her clock. Going back to sleep sounded so inviting. Yuri fidgeted a bit, adjusted her pillow, and shut her eyes until the floor creaked a minute later and the subsequent thud of a cabinet door closing told her that she had simply overreacted to what she heard on the radio. This happened from time to time.

Yuri stretched an arm out to flick on the light, illuminating enough of the floor that she could guide herself to a sweatshirt and gently into her slippers. She took long, quiet strides as she paced across her room and toward the glow at the end of the hallway. Nobody was listening, but it didn’t feel right to be making too much noise so early in the morning while the rest of the world was still asleep. She squinted in anticipation of the bright lights and offered a “hello” before turning into the kitchen.

The single lightbulb in the lamp in her room may have been bearable but her eyes hadn’t had time to adjust to the harsh white kitchen lights. Yuri brushed the dimmer switch and opened her eyes back up to see her mother slouching in her seat and swiping around on her tablet. She stood a bit shorter than Yuri, and a bit more heavyset. People always remarked how much Yuri looked like her father, anyway. Dark circles ringed her violet eyes, blinking slowly as she leaned over to rest the weight of her head on one of her arms. The kitchen lights bearing down emphasized the creases on her face and the drab color of her scrubs complemented her pale skin and fading hair that was pulled back into a messy bun. Yuri knew that she would look more like herself after something to eat and some rest, but working so late had a tendency to drain the liveliness out of her mother.

“Morning,” her mother replied. Neither of them really had the energy to carry out a conversation. Yuri turned on the electric kettle next to the microwave, the door still ajar and smelling slightly sweet from whatever her mom had reheated for her late dinner. They sat side by side and Yuri checked her phone while her mother picked out something to watch an episode of before she started to make her way to bed. 

The burbling kettle permeated the comfortable quiet in the kitchen, and glancing up from her phone Yuri could already see some of the tension beginning to fade as her mother lowered her shoulders. Back down to her phone to check Twitter, which was always pretty inactive at this hour, save for a few drawings that Natsuki had retweeted… an hour ago?_ What was she always up to so late? When did she sleep? _ The kettle dinged and cut her worrying short.

4:11 am

The floor groaned. Natsuki slammed her laptop shut and hurled her body into her bed, flicking off the small lamp by her bed with the tip of her finger on the way. After dinner she knew her father had had enough drinks to render him almost comatose, but not enough that he would have to wake up to take a pee break. If she stuffed a sweatshirt under her door she could turn on a lamp to read by without worrying as much about its light creeping out from under her door and prying open his eyes in the middle of the night. An unfortunate consequence of this: with her door shut and blocked off, the room was sweltering, and her blankets and all the pillows on her bed only made the issue worse. Outside her door he cleared his throat.

Even for her, this was cutting it close. She knew how long she had before school started, and her self-imposed bedtime of 3 am ensured that she’d be asleep, for real, by the time her father started getting up and ready for work. She checked her phone to make sure her alarms would wake her up in the morning and couldn’t help but check twitter one more time before she signed off for the night.

“Yuri liked your Tweet.”

_ Geez, go to bed already. _

4:23 am

Yuri fixed a cup of earl grey for herself and another cup of rooibos, and sat down at the table with the two mugs. Her mom had finally settled on an old episode of some sitcom. She wasn’t really sure which one, she hadn’t seen any recognizable characters yet and to some extent these shows all seemed more or less the same to Yuri anyway. She raised her mug with both hands and yawned before beginning to take a sip. “Are you sure you don’t need to go back to bed?” her mother gently interjected, “I love seeing you before you go to school but I do worry about you sometimes.” Yuri shook her head slightly and reassured her, “of course not! Besides, I don’t think I would enjoy drinking tea alone in the mornings.” They smiled slightly at each other.

“Thank you.”

A few months ago this had become something of an anchor in both of their unusual schedules. Yuri’s mother had been feeling unmotivated and depressed coming home to a quiet, dark house every night, and Yuri missed feeling like a part of a family when her mom started working longer, later hours. And on the bright side, waking up this early gave her plenty of time to finish her homework and get ready for the coming day while the sun was still rising. 

The credits started scrolling across the tablet’s screen as her mother finished the last few gulps of her tea. _ Did she start in the middle of an episode? _ “I’m sorry,” she yawned, “I really ought to start getting cleaned up. Tonight was just…”

“It’s okay! I understand,” Yuri responded brightly. The tea, or at least the thought of it, had already gone to work helping her feel more alert.

“Thank you, sorry. I love you, good night.” Her voice was quiet as she teetered slowly out of the kitchen and vanished into the dark hallway, leaving Yuri with half a cup of quickly cooling tea and another three quiet hours to while away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's all she wrote! (not really, I have a bit more prepared). I'm busy busy with class lately, but I'm trying to get back into the habit of writing so any feedback is good feedback and this will certainly not be the last you see of me!


	2. Overslept

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some people need a little push to get out of bed in the morning. Or two. Or more.

7:00am

Natsuki never met an alarm clock she liked. She had played through all of her phone’s default sounds before she downloaded ringtone packs that were supposed to be relaxing and peaceful but they either didn’t wake her up (this is what backup alarms are for) or she quickly got bored of them. A few times she had tried setting her alarm to play a song she liked only to find out that she didn’t even like listening to them on their own anymore after a few days. So, in the interest of not ruining any other songs she liked, she was back to rotating through the default alarms. 

Her phone only had the chance to buzz once before she blindly reached over and shut it up. There was another one set for 10 minutes from now just in case she stayed up too late (which she did) and fell back asleep after the first alarm (which she was about to do).

7:10am

The second alarm was more irritating than the first. She knew that if she got up now, she would have enough time to make some toast before she left, but sleeping through two alarms generally meant skipping breakfast or being late. She reluctantly sat up in her bed and rubbed her eyes until she could open them long enough to actually see.

In the mornings, sun poured in through the windows by her bed and into the corners of her bedroom that her little lamp didn’t reach at night. The clothes that didn’t quite make it into the laundry hamper, the papers spilling out of her backpack, and the colorful cover of the manga she had brought home and left out on her desk were all bright and visible in the new sunlight. Her room wasn’t necessarily messy, particularly compared to some of the rest of the house, but it would be a stretch to call it really clean. 

The light also had the unfortunate effect of letting Natsuki see just how bad her bedhead was. _ Crap. _ Another mess to tidy up. Every minute of her morning was valuable time and it was already slipping away from her. Picking up the mess on the floor and getting her bag all packed up wouldn’t take too long. Maybe if she used a bunch of pins and hairclips she could get her hair to stay down and look like she did it on purpose. Maybe not. She’d find time to fix it.

Natsuki stepped softly down the stairs and into the kitchen. There were dirty dishes in the sink to be cleaned, but the kitchen otherwise seemed fairly neat. The TV was off, her third alarm hadn’t gone off yet, and in the moments before she started making breakfast she stretched out her arms, took a deep breath, and let out a loud yawn to break the silence. “Okay, okay,” she whispered to the empty kitchen, “Breakfast, dishes, and then you get dressed.” She tore open the fridge, glanced at the clock and back at the fridge, and decided with a sigh that toast would have to do. 

While the toast toasted she ran the faucet to clean the dishes that were left for her in the sink. While the faucet ran she caught a whiff of smoke. Back and forth, and now her toast was burning. As she unplugged the toaster she muttered to herself “don’t be so careless” and turned her attention back to the dishes while she waited for the toast to cool enough to handle. The faucet continued to run while the toast cooled, and when the dishes were left to drip dry and the toast was all gone the counter was littered with dark crumbs. She groaned. “What a mess.” She took a slow breath in and brushed her unkempt bangs out of her face. “What a mess.” 

7:24am

Natsuki tapped the power button on her phone and bolted up the stairs to get her uniform together as soon as the time blinked onto the screen. In six minutes, a third alarm would ring.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know this is short, It just made more sense to me to break up this section and the next one (Is this a cliffhanger? no, not really). Also I just wanted to post something.
> 
> I tried to draw on my usual morning routine for this, but if I only set three alarms there would be NO chance of me getting out of bed and to work on time.


	3. Cold Tea

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tea before coffee, apparently. Yuri's morning continues quietly while Natsuki's hurries along.

6:25am

Yuri was hunched over the table typing into her calculator when the sky started changing color in the window behind her. Waking up so early just to say goodnight and do math homework had a way of sucking the romantic flair out of watching the sun rise. So she didn’t. The last few drops of her tea went cold and sat without a ripple in the bottom of her mug.

She sighed with relief when the assignment was finally done and she had finished glancing over her answers in the warm light of the early morning. There was about enough time left before school started for her to read another chapter or so of the book Monika lent her, a hobby she felt she had far too little time for in between schoolwork and her early morning routine. She had been up late last night too, wasting her time and having difficulty sleeping. _ If I had only managed my time better… _ Unwilling to let her day start off on the wrong foot, she found it time to wash her face and clear her head.

Another thing she realized, her long hair felt like it had tangled itself into a violet spiderweb in the time since she went to bed. Would people notice? It was likely. Yuri’s vibrant hair was one of the first things people noticed about her, after her height. Yes, getting this straightened out again would take an eternity. Or at least a few minutes. And when it was done she would layer on her uniform, pulling her blazer’s long sleeves over her arms quickly as if some hidden pair of eyes may pass judgment on her. _ Surely they’d notice that kind of thing. _

That was enough existential primping for one morning, though. Yuri buttoned her blazer over her chest and returned to the kitchen to pack her homework and books up in her bag. There was still time to stop by a cafe on the walk to school, She could get some reading done there, maybe. Before she left, Yuri took her mug with the remnants of her tea and placed it in the sink next to her mother’s.

7:00am

A handful of cars drove lazily on the empty road that Yuri took to school. She passed the street that led east to Natsuki’s place, and turned her head to look for her house as she walked along. _Probably oversleeping._ _I can’t imagine how she and Sayori do it._ She giggled softly. _I’m sure Sayori would have a joke to make about that._

Luna Cafe was a quiet coffee shop most of the time, but it always picked up around this part of the morning. People in suits crowded the register in a loose approximation of a line, mostly adults on their way to work and some university students, but Yuri recognized a few faces from the halls of her school.

“A small americano, please.”

“Gotcha. And your name?”

”Eh?”

“...Your name?”

”Oh, Yuri. I’m sorry, I don’t think I recognize you. Have you worked here long?”

“it’s been many years…” he said in his best impression of an old man’s voice, before clearing his throat and switching back to normal speech. It still got a modest chuckle out of her. “well,” He continued, “actually it’s been a year or so. I’m usually here in the evenings but I’m surprised we’ve never met before, it feels like I’m here every day.” 

“Ah, yes, well I’m more of a morning person.”

The stranger taking her order picked up on the lull in the conversation and spoke up, “Well it’s nice to meet you, and that americano will be right up for you, Yuri.” and dismissed her with a smile. 

She made her way toward the back of the cafe where a handful of small tables sat surrounded by clocks that didn’t work and shelves holding vintage coffee memorabilia, only to find that all of the seats had been claimed by students who looked a bit older than her staring intently at their laptops or squinting at heavy textbooks. _ Not today, I suppose. _

The front of the cafe was a bit less cluttered, a bit more open, and the walls were covered with paintings that didn’t follow any cohesive theme rather than shelves. The extra space allowed for more foot traffic and gave people who were just stopping in to grab something and go time to stand and chat while they waited for their coffee. In short, it was noisy. Yuri took careful steps to a seat by a window, weaving between other customers and making her best effort to not bump into anyone and make them spill their drinks on each other. The path was treacherous and she tensed up whenever she brushed someone’s backpack, issuing brief apologies as she worked her way to her seat, just in time to hear someone call out “Americano for Yuri!” and make the trek again.

7:45am

_ Crap. Crap. Crap. Crap. _ Natsuki was scrambling. She worked her way through an imaginary checklist: _ clean the dishes, brush my hair, uniform… I got my backpack. Am I forgetting something? I’m forgetting something. Did I put the toaster away? Yep. Whatever. It’s probably nothing.” _ School didn’t start for another 45 minutes, but she was walking and she couldn’t afford to be late again. _ Did I tie my shoes? _ She was wearing slip-ons. _ Okay. Whatever. _ She locked the door behind her and hurried toward the street, taking quick steps as she ran through some other options: _ I put my books away, right? Yeah, right before I got dressed. Did I brush my teeth? Yeah, brushed my teeth, grabbed my backpack… _ She turned the corner off her street and continued down the main road where more and more cars were stopped at each red light. _ Wait, _ she walked past Luna Cafe and the convenience store next to it before she processed who she had seen in the window. She stopped just short of the next street and looked back over he shoulder, _ was that Yuri? _ When she looked ahead again the crosswalk light flashed mockingly and turned red before her eyes. _ Dammit. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun fact: this cafe is loosely based on a place I go to a lot and that I'm actually sitting in as I write this. I swear things will start actually happening in the next chapter, sorry for getting carried away talking about both of them doing nothing for so long. 
> 
> Also I don't know what I was thinking including so many timestamps, I was only planning on doing it for the beginning of the story anyway and I'm glad because I'm terrible at managing my time in real life, so I have no idea how long things should take. Don't think about it too hard.


End file.
